The Law Society has raised objections to an HMRC consultation on draft regulations for mandatory disclosure rules
The draft regulations, which HMRC envisages coming into force in the summer, would replace DAC 6 and require disclosure of certain common reporting standard avoidance arrangements and opaque offshore structures, in line with the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development’s ‘Model Mandatory Disclosure Rules’.
The Law Society points out that solicitors would be required to report pre-existing arrangements dating back to 2014, carrying out internal due diligence and file reviews going back eight years. This would apply even where law firms have recently carried out similar reviews back to 2018 to comply with DAC 6.
In its response, the Law Society stated: ‘This further backward-looking review would be costly and practically difficult, and we question whether it is necessary and proportionate.’
Its other objections relate to the design of the rules and how these interact with legal professional privilege.
